Foreign companies find it hard to understand the Italian regulations, which are particularly complicated. What is more, the obligations are applicable to all foreign employers who post workers to Italy and not only those residents in the European Union.
In our previous article we identified some critical areas regarding the interpretation of Legislative Decree 136/2016, implementing in Italy EU Directives on transnational posting of workers.
Answering questions about posting workers to Italy
Sources
Circular 1 dated 15/02/2023 of the National Labor Inspectorate – Note 2401 dated 20/12/2023 of the National Labor Inspectorate
Question: Where must the person with elected domicile In Italy and appointed to send and receive official documents be located?
Answer (note 2401): he/she should not be physically anywhere in Italy. It is sufficient to provide details of his/her Italian domicile.
Question: Where must the compulsory documents be kept?
Answer (note 2401): they need not be kept in the location of the posting, provided they are made available to the inspectors.
Question: if my country does not have a public notification of the commencement of employment what document do I have to provide?
Answer (circular 1/2023): the A1 application is considered an equivalent document.
Some remarks
An “equivalent document”
The A1 certificate provides proof that the worker is covered by social security. The A1 convention includes EU countries as well as countries in the EEA (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), and Switzerland.
Employers from other countries cannot be sure what document may be deemed equivalent.
The digital transition
For some time now Italy has been undergoing digitalization; income tax returns could be submitted digitally as far back as 1999.
To access the portal of the Ministry of Employment and Social Policy [Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali] an electronic ID is required and to register a foreign company must be a certified electronic signature holder as recognized by our systems.
We are therefore hopeful that we will soon transition to the “electronic domicile” concept and to documents in digital format, given that most of them start life in that format (for example the A1 certificate).
Why is it important, even if not compulsory, to have a specialized consultant in Italy, acting as contact person?
For the same reason it is important to have a local contact person in France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and anywhere else it is not compulsory!!!
The ideal local consultant:
- Is on your side
- Is perfectly familiar with the regulations of his/her country
- Speaks the language
- Knows how inspections work
In other words, he/she is in control of the situation. And can make all the difference.
TradeCube can help you at all stages with a posting to Italy, from submitting the notification, to drafting documents and, above all, when audits take place.
Photo by Ilia Bronskiy
